Android top OS in the US, iPhone most popular smartphone

Android has grabbed 43.6 percent of the US smartphone market in the third quarter, making it the dominant player in the US for mobile operating systems, according to Canalys. At the same time, Apple captured 26.2 percent of the market, beating out RIM's 24.2 percent (last quarter RIM had 32.0 percent while Apple had 21.7 percent). That means that all the iPhone versions combined were more popular than all the BlackBerries combined. Meanwhile, Microsoft was dead last this quarter with a mere 3.0 percent.

Worldwide, things are slightly different. Nokia and the Symbian Foundation still dominate the stage as the leading smart phone OS vendor, owning 33 percent of the market (compared to 38 percent last quarter). Android grabbed a quarter of the market thanks to large numbers of devices from Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson. Apple snatched 17 percent, RIM took 15 percent, while Microsoft once again settled for a lowly three percent (though Windows Phone is expected to change that). The worldwide smart phone market grew 95 percent over the same quarter a year ago to 80.9 million shipped units.

"Where smart phone growth in mature Western markets has been driven by high-end products, in many emerging markets where disposable income is more constrained, growth is being driven by good-quality products that can attract mass-market volumes in the mid-tier of the market," Chris Jones, Canalys Principal Analyst, said in a statement. "To succeed in these markets, vendors need to offer smart phones that provide consumers with the same ability to engage with the locally relevant mobile applications and connected services that consumers want to use, but at a more locally accessible price."